Perseids - 4/19/24
somesurprises is the musical project of Egyptian/English American songwriter and guitarist Natasha El-Sergany. Born in Letterkenny, Ireland, and raised in the north of England before moving to Florida at age ten, El-Sergany eventually found home in the evergreen mist of Seattle, WA. What began as a bedroom project focused on spectral balladry and late-night exploration has evolved into a dynamic four-piece band. Motorik beats, reverb-drenched vocals, washes of fingerpicked guitars, and hazy synths expand El-Sergany’s delicate and blissful songwriting.
Perseids, the band’s first new album since 2019, hearkens back to the raw and powerful voice memos that started the project. El-Sergany recorded and demoed tracks in near isolation beginning in early 2021 at Seattle’s legendary Crybaby Studios. Cellist Lori Goldston (Earth, Nirvana) and long-time musical partner Josh Medina provided contributions remotely, before the band reunited later that year at ExEx Audio with producer Paurl Walsh. Bassist Laura Seniow and drummer Nico Sophiea provided drive and rhythmic grounding for the initial skeletal songs. Vocalist Jessika Kenney (Sunn O))), Midsommar) added life and meaning to the album’s title track, drawing inspiration from Islamic poetic tradition central to El-Sergany’s vision for the album. Musically, the album draws from a variety of influences, including Stereolab, Cluster, Broadcast, Neu!, Mazzy Star, and Nick Drake. El-Sergany and band are however, uniquely their own, combining elements of shoegaze, dreampop, drone rock, and experimental improvisation. Perseids releases on April 19th, 2024 via LA’s Doom Trip Records.
somesurprises released their solo debut Voice Memos in 2016, a collection of accidental and hushed tracks recorded live and without overdubs. 2017 saw the release of Serious Dreams, a 4-track collaboration with Medina of spaced-out electric folk songs, released on Eiderdown Records. Later that year, somesurprises expanded into a quartet and began sessions on what would become the 2018 EP Alt and their 2019 self-titled LP. somesurprises was released by New York’s Drawing Room Records, which encapsulated new songs by the band, and re-envisioned old tracks from the somesurprises discography. The album received glowing praise from national and local press, premiering via KEXP and landing in The Seattle Times’ top five albums of the year.
“If the wounds of time’s wheel have drained your heart of life,
Like Hafez, into the demon of grief, throw the shooting star’s arrow.”